ST Alpha - "But we have so many other things that people including kids get serious injuries and yet we focus on the thing that is only 800 per year...." (Reading a Post)

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In response to "to repeat what others have said: a serious head injury is not a cut or a scratch, it's permanent. so why not put on a damn helmet?" by loosilu

But we have so many other things that people including kids get serious injuries and yet we focus on the thing that is only 800 per year....

Posted by Walt_Disney (aka Walt_Disney) Dec 22 '08, 15:08

There are so many drownings and fires and car accidents that cause much more and yet the bike helmets seem to be such a much more important point then those.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading_preventable_causes_of_death (en.wikipedia.org)

Responses:

Just a quick quibble....those are injuries from those; not deaths. - Will Hunting Dec 22, 15:13 25
- And really I could care less. I'm not looking to bubble wrap my kids (they ride horses for god's sake and fall regularly), but I don't want my kid to - pmb Dec 22, 15:43 3
  - Just curious, do they wear helmets when riding the horses? ( I honestly don't know the answer for kids riding.) -- nm - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:47 2
    - I should say that it is mandatory for adults as well. You will almost never see a rider on a horse without a helmet. - pmb Dec 22, 15:54
    - Absolutely. It's mandatory in the show ring and it has to be a certified helmet as well. -- nm - pmb Dec 22, 15:49
- the stat I heard on the BB, be it true or false, was that 95% of those 800 fatalities were incidents where a helmet was not being worn -- nm - Beryllium Dec 22, 15:14 20
  - And a quibble here (because the other got lost to backboarding), nothing about that number says that helmets would have prevented them. -- nm - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:16 19
    - You believe 100% of those deaths were non-preventable? - Will Hunting Dec 22, 15:20 10
      - No. As said below, it just doesn't provide a sound number for comparison is all. As far as your IM... - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:25 9
        
        it really soumds like - loosilu Dec 22, 15:29 8
        
        Evidence of what Loosi? That a helmet can prevent a head injury? Sure. I've never argued against that. - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:33 7
        
        you actually did - loosilu Dec 22, 15:37 1
        
        Which post? (Because you shouldn't confuse the criticism of the 95% number as a criticism of helmets themselves.) -- nm - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:50
        
        You'll need to prove to me that the cost of a bike helmet law is more worth it than a few hundred preventable dead kids. - Will Hunting Dec 22, 15:35 4
        
        Really? So you favour helmets for toboggans? Skating? Skiing? Climbing trees? Tree houses? - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:42 3
        
        You show me where you're looking at 800 people dying a year (a fair bit of them likely preventable) from those activities, I'll look into it. - Will Hunting Dec 22, 15:54 2
        
        No barb wire scars on me. (That's Walt.) Statistically, I'd bet it's not all that unconsistent with those other activities. - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:59 1
        
        Here's an interesting fact sheet: (Like, did we know that baseball has the highest fatality rate amongst sports?) -- (link) - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 16:01
    - if the rate of helmet wearing is over 5%, it suggests it very strongly. -- nm - loosilu Dec 22, 15:20
    - really? - Beryllium Dec 22, 15:18 6
      - I'm just saying that until you factor in the overall percentage of helmet usage and factor out fatalities that would have been fatalities anyhow... - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:22 5
        
        common sense test. - loosilu Dec 22, 15:25 3
        
        No, it is likely far higher I would think. That said, my argument is not that helmets don't cut down on injuries. - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:29 2
        
        theres - loosilu Dec 22, 15:31 1
        
        Who's been arguing that they aren't safer? Let's not confuse putting numbers into perspective (ala Bery's 95%) and denial that they work at all. - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:37
        
        Statistics on their own don't mean anything. They just suggest things. -- nm - Beryllium Dec 22, 15:23
its 800 a year thankls to helmet ,laws. wjhat was it before? -- nm - loosilu Dec 22, 15:11 8
- Appears to be down from around 1,000 annually, but a couple of authors have hypothesized that drunk driver crackdowns were a big reason too. -- nm - Name Withheld By Request Dec 22, 15:15
- What were car accident deaths before cars, what were posionings before all the crap we keep under the sink? -- nm - Walt_Disney Dec 22, 15:13 5
  - check out stats for seat belts. -- nm - loosilu Dec 22, 15:16
  - The more likely analogy would be, what were car accident deaths per capita prior to seat belt laws -- nm - Beryllium Dec 22, 15:15 3
    - I agree with seat belts....especially when you are doing 100 km on a highway and someone decides to talk on a cell phone and not pay attention. - Walt_Disney Dec 22, 15:21 1
      - kids ride bikes on those same streets. -- nm - loosilu Dec 22, 15:26
    - (Populations have trended up, as accidental fatalities have trended down ... so numbers need to be massaged to provide the right perspective) -- nm - Beryllium Dec 22, 15:16
- I wonder if I should mandate helmets for ST posting? ;-) -- nm - Beryllium Dec 22, 15:12

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But we have so many other things that people including kids get serious injuries and yet we focus on the thing that is only 800 per year....

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